Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, has responded to predictions of 'rocketing' patient demand and appointment waiting times in general practice by 2022.

She said: “Hard pressed GPs around the country are already running on empty so these predictions are really concerning. As well as huge increases in the volume of patient numbers, disease management is also becoming much more complex and we simply cannot do any more without a significant injection of investment in general practice, including a significant influx of GPs.

"We are feeling the impact of a decade of under-investment in the family doctor service on a daily basis. Today alone, over 1m patients will have received care at their local practice and we are seeing 60m more patients per year compared even to five years ago.

"We are trying our hardest to see many patients as we can, but we need to remember that GPs’ own health and wellbeing is crucial for patient safety.

"Our General Election manifesto Six Steps for Safer General Practice, calls on the new Government, whatever its persuasion, to honour the pledges of NHS England’s GP Forward View, and for all the governments of the UK to invest in general practice as a matter of urgency to ensure that we have sufficient numbers of GPs to deliver the quality and safe care that our patients need and deserve.”

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 50,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.